I was almost to the lake when the car pulled up beside me. In the summer, I would have continued and walked the three-mile loop through the woods, but this was winter, so I was planning on going around the block a couple of times. The woman in the car signaled to me, and I pulled off my headphones, thinking she would ask for directions. Instead, she jumped into a rant.
“Did you know that there are truck drivers dumping trash off the side of the road here?”
It took me at least three seconds to process that. …

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